DEAD LIKE ME

'''Dead Like Me''' is an American television comedy-drama starring Ellen Muth and Mandy Patinkin as grim reapers in Seattle, Washington. The show was created by Bryan Fuller for the Showtime network, where it ran for two seasons before cancellation. Fuller left early due to creative differences; he went on to co-create ''Wonderfalls'' and create ''Pushing Daisies''. Creative direction of ''Dead Like Me'' was taken over by executive producer John Masius. The series is currently being rerun on the Sci Fi Channel.^[1]
Eighteen-year-old Georgia "George" Lass (played by Muth) is the show's protagonist and narrator. George dies early in the pilot episode, leaving her mother (Cynthia Stevenson) and rest of her family behind at a point when her relationships with them were on shaky ground. She is tapped to become one of the "undead", a grim reaper. George soon learns that a reaper's job is to remove the souls of people, preferably right before they die, and escort them until they move on into their afterlife. The show explores the "lives" and experiences of a small team of such reapers — a team led by Rube (played by Patinkin) — as well as the post-mortem changes in George and George's family as they deal with George's death.

Contents

Synopsis

Cast and characters

Reapers

Family

Happy Time Temporary Services

Episodes

DVD releases

Grim reapers

Gravelings

Behind the scenes

Awards and Ratings

Fuller's departure

References

External links

Synopsis

Georgia Lass is aloof and emotionally distant from her family and shied away from her life. After dropping out of college, she takes a job at Happy Time Temporary Services. On her lunch break of her first day, she is hit and killed by a toilet seat from the de-orbiting of the Mir space station.^[2] She is informed shortly after her death that, rather than moving on to the "great beyond", she will become a grim reaper in the "external influence" division^[2], responsible for reaping souls of people who die in accidents (many of which are of Rube Goldberg-style complexity^[2][5]), suicides and homicides.
Through the first season, George has trouble adjusting to her circumstances: collecting souls, while holding a day job at Happy Time. By the second season, she has mostly adjusted to her new role, though still has unresolved issues with her life and her afterlife.
George's family is struggling to deal with her death. Her mother, Joy, is depressed, and visibly repressing it, while Clancy, her father, is cheating on Joy. George's sister, Reggie, acts out — stealing toilet seats from neighbors and school, and hanging them on a tree — before being sent to therapy by Joy. She clings to the belief that George visits her, but is starting to lie to cover this up. At the start of the second season, the family began to break apart as divorce proceedings began.
Nearly all of the main characters have some form of depression, however, they cope with it in different ways: Mason resorts to alcohol and drugs, Daisy puts on a veneer of perkiness, and Roxy is physically and verbally aggressive. Rube and George are more open about their sadness.

Cast and characters

Main articles: List of Dead Like Me characters

Reapers

★ 'Georgia "George" Lass' (Ellen Muth): The show's protagonist. In addition to being a grim reaper she has a day job at Happy Time Temporary Services, under the assumed name "Millie". She is killed when a toilet seat from the Mir space station falls on her.

★ 'Rube John Sofer' (Mandy Patinkin): The head of the group of reapers; becomes the Father Figure for George (whom he calls "Peanut") in her grim-reaping afterlife. He died in 1926 or earlier, and had a daughter named Rose ("Rosie"). The manner of his death is never made known.

★ 'Mason' (Callum Blue): A drug/alcohol addict and thief, but a likable person. He acts as an "older brother" figure to George, and is attracted to Daisy. He is originally from London, England, and he died in 1966 by drilling a hole in his head to achieve the permanent high.

★ 'Roxy Harvey' (Jasmine Guy): A strong-willed, sassy, independent character. Her day job is initially as a meter maid, but she later becomes a cop. Roxy was killed in 1982 by a jealous roommate (strangled to death with leg warmers - which she invented).

★ 'Daisy Adair' (Laura Harris): A spoiled actress who often tells stories about (alleged) sexual escapades with classic film stars. She died on December 13, 1938 of asphyxiation/smoke inhalation in Marietta, Georgia, (supposedly on the set of ''Gone with the Wind''). Her last thought before she died was "Why has nobody ever loved me?".

★ 'Betty Rohmer' (Rebecca Gayheart): A confident, well-adjusted reaper. She keeps Polaroids of each of the souls she reaped in department store shopping bags, organized by personality type. She is beginning to bond with George when early in the first season she "hitches a ride" with one of the souls George had reaped and is never seen again. She died in 1926 while cliff-diving.

Family

★ 'Reggie Lass' (Britt McKillip): George's younger sister. Though George ignored her while she was alive, Reggie is very much affected by the death of her sister. She believes that George's ghost still roams about the city and visits their home from time to time (technically, she is right). Due to her eccentric, borderline pathological way of grieving her sister's death, Reggie is placed in therapy.

★ 'Joy Lass' (Cynthia Stevenson): George's mother. She likes to have order, rules, and control in her life. Other characters in the show, such as her own mother, mention that her obsession with control is how she copes with denial of her own out-of-control life: her daughter George's death; her younger daughter's rather unconventional style of grieving George's death; and her divorce from Clancy Lass.

★ 'Clancy Lass' (Greg Kean): George's father. He is an English Professor at the University of Washington. His relationship with Joy begins to seriously deteriorate after the death of George. He has an affair with one of his Shakespeare class students, which becomes the final death knell to his marriage.

Happy Time Temporary Services

★ 'Delores Herbig' (Christine Willes): George's boss. Delores dislikes George, but becomes friends with "Millie".

★ 'Crystal Smith' (Crystal Dahl): Happy Time's mysterious receptionist. Crystal once helped the reapers organize into computer files a collection of souls' last thoughts. She steals office supplies, specifically POST-IT notes.

Episodes

Main articles: List of Dead Like Me episodes

Each episode lasts approximately 45 minutes and usually follows the events of a single day.

DVD releases

Season	Release dates	Includes
Season 1	Region 1: June 15, 2004 Region 2: June 20, 2005 Region 4: July 12, 2005[6]	★ All 14 episodes of the first season. ★ Commentary by members of the cast. ★ Thirty minutes of deleted scenes. ★ Two behind-the-scenes featurettes. ★ Photo gallery.[7]
Season 2	Region 1: June 19, 2005 Region 2: April 16, 2007 Region 4: July 18, 2007[6]	★ All 15 episodes of the season two. ★ Deleted scenes. ★ Behind-the-scenes featurettes. ★ Photo gallery.[9]

Main articles: Dead Like Me (film)

On April 18, 2007, MGM announced that they are developing several direct-to-DVD movies and sequels. Included among them is a brand new film based on ''Dead Like Me''.^[10]

Grim reapers

In the world of ''Dead Like Me'', Grim reapers don't wear black cloaks or carry scythes ''(cloaks and scythes are only featured during the opening credits.)'', but their role remains traditional: they remove the souls of the living shortly before death and escort them into their afterlife.
Death has a list of who is scheduled to die and when. Each Reaper is given a non-transferable assignment to collect particular souls.^[2] Sometimes finding that assignment is difficult because the Reapers only receive the first (and sometimes middle) initial and last name of the person about to die, the place, and time of death. That person must be reaped at the time of their intended death, or the soul will remain in the dead body until reaped.
If the events surrounding a person's death are interfered with by a reaper and they do not die at their appointed time, the soul will "wither and die and rot inside" them.^[2] Deaths can also be stopped without risk to the soul by interfering well in advance, thus reapers would not be interfering with the events that lead to the death, however such actions might have unintended consequences, such as more people dying before their time.
Reapers have a physical body and may interact with the living and the dead. The only special abilities Reapers have besides collecting souls are the powers to remain ageless and to heal quickly.^[2][2] When seen by the living, a reaper's physical appearance is different from the one they had when alive, though fellow reapers see their original appearances.^[2] Laura Boddington portrays lead character George's 'undead' appearance in six episodes.^[16]
The passage into the afterlife is shown as a brightly lit scene towards which the newly-deceased is drawn. The portal is unique to each soul: for a child, it may be a wonderful carnival, but for a yoga master, it may be a Deva beckoning from within a Divine Lotus. Souls cannot be forced to enter the portals, so part of the Reapers' job is to convince such souls to do so.

Gravelings

In the show, Reapers do not actually kill people. Instead, deaths are arranged by 'gravelings'.^[2]
Gravelings are mischievous gremlin-like creatures that cause the accidents and mishaps that kill people. The living cannot see them, though in one episode, a schizophrenic seems to do so. Reapers can see them, but only "in the corner of his or her eye."^[2] George apparently sees gravelings more clearly than other reapers can, and encountered them at least twice as a child. Gravelings don't communicate verbally with Reapers, and talk to each other in a hushed and unintelligible babble. Reapers can apparently communicate with them to some extent: Daisy once shushed a graveling; Rube yelled "Get outta here!" when he saw gravelings playing on a cemetery statue.
A graveling rose from the body of Ray following his death at the hands of a reaper,^[2] implying that gravelings result from either evil or rotted souls, from the un-reaped soul of a person who dies before their destined time, or from someone who is killed by a reaper.

Behind the scenes

Awards and Ratings

The series was nominated for a total of eight awards including two Emmys for ''"Outstanding Music Composition for a Series"'' and ''"Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series"'' and three Saturn Awards.^[20] The show's complete ratings were not released, though executives had claimed to at least one reporter that ''Dead Like Me'' had ratings three times Showtime's primetime average.^[21] This contradicts the network's statement that the ratings were not high enough for a third season.^[22] When questioned by critics about the ratings in January 2005, Showtime Chairman and CEO Matthew Blank responded "I really don't think we know...."^[23]

Fuller's departure

Bryan Fuller left early in the first season due to conflicts with MGM Television (Among them were major script and storyline cuts that were important to the main theme). He stated that the "lack of professionalism...made it really difficult...It was like being at war...They were constantly trying to strong arm me. It was the worst experience of my life." According to Fuller, Showtime cancelled the show because of "a loss of quality and a sense the problems would continue."^[24]

References

1. SciFi.com Dead Like Me
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5. "Dead Like Me: The Complete First Season"
6. Dead Like Me - Complete Season 1 @ EzyDVD
7. Amazon.com ''Dead Like Me'' Season 1 DVD: Product details
8. Dead Like Me - Complete Season 1 @ EzyDVD
9. Amazon.com ''Dead Like Me'' Season 2 DVD: Product details
10. MGM Announces SF DVD Slate
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16. Laura Boddington
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20. Awards for "Dead Like Me"
21. Science Fiction Delivers Mainstream Hits
22. MGM's wants to bring 'Dead' back to life
23. MGM Resurrects Dead Like Me
24. Dead Like Me Creator Bryan Fuller Speaks Out on Showtime, MGM and the Future

External links

★ ''Dead Like Me'' at MGM

★ ''Dead Like Me'' at Scifi Channel

★ ''Dead Like Me'' at Showtime